According to the Blacksburg Museum Web site, "The site of the settlement was selected because of the abundance of fertile land and numerous springs, just within the eastern boundary of the great Mississippi River basin."
William Preston surveyed the original settlement, creating 25 to 30 lots and returned 20 years later, in 1773, and purchased four of those lots to create the Smithfield Plantation and prosperous land business.
Samuel Black also purchased one lot on which his sons later constructed the square grid of streets now known as "The Old Sixteen Squares." William Black bought the current town of Blacksburg, hence its name.
In 1872 the Virginia General Assembly purchased the facilities of Preston and Olin Institute, a private institution in rural Montgomery County. The Commonwealth then incorporated it into a state-supported land grant military institute named Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College.
According to the Blacksburg Partnership Web site, Virginia Tech is the state's largest university, with enrollment around 29,000 with undergraduate students pumping more than $81 million into the local economy annually.
Tech graduate students spend an additional $45 million annually.
"Virginia Tech employs almost 3,000 faculty members with an average salary of over $65,000 and nearly 3,600 classified staff with an average salary of over $31,000. The total university payroll is $375 million," according to blacksburgpartnership.org
The Virginia Tech Hokies have earned the university national recognition and bring thousands of fans to home games.
The population of Blacksburg as of 2005 was 43,202 compared to 3,358 in 1950.
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